Silas e



, UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SILAS R. DIVINE, OF LOGH SHELDRAKE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE REND BOOK POWDER COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY.

EXPLOSI'VE COMPOUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters '2 atent No. 289,763, dated December 4, 1883,

Application fi ed August 8, 1883. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SILAS R. DIVINE, of Loch Sheldrake, Sullivan county, State of New York, and a citizen of the United States, have invented an Improved Explosive Compound, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification. I

The object of myinvention is to sensitize or impart increased susceptibility to explosion to an explosive compound, for use chiefly in blasting, composed of chlorate of potash, in a crushed or powdered state, as a solid ingredient, and a mixture of nitro-benzole and the heavy oil of coal-tar, commonly called dead-oil, as a liquid ingredient, so that said compound may be readily exploded under various conditions of confinement, as in loose or rotten rock or shale, or in earth, or in the open air.

My invention consists in an explosive compound of crushed or powdered chlorate of potash, as a solid ingredient therein, and a mixture of substantially equal parts of nitro-benzole and dead-oil, as a liquid ingredient therein, substantially in the proportions of from about four to five parts of said solid to one of said liquid ingredient, (as described by me in an application for Letters Patent filed July 23, 1883,) with the wet or moist mass of said ingredientsis united sulphur, in afinely-powdered state, substantially in the proportions hereinafter set forth.

As is stated in said application for Letters Patent, above referred to, either perchlorate or permanganateof potash may be substituted for chlorate of potash in the compound, and in like manner other liquid nitro compounds may be substituted for nitro-benzole, and other fluid hydrocarbons which are practically non-volatile in a free state at ordinary temperatures-say such as have a boiling-point above about 800 Fahrenheitof nitro-llenzole may be substituted for the dead-oil; and the stated proportions need not, however, be strictly adhered to, inasmuch as a preponderance of the nitro-benzole in the mixture constituting the liquid ingredient will augment the strength or power of the explosive, while a diminution of the nitro-benzole in said mixturewill decrease such strength or power, and in the former case it will be found desirable to decrease somewhat, and in the latter case to increase somewhat, the proportion of the chlorate of potash in the compound; and, for thermore, the said solid and liquid ingredients may be readily combined by simply allowing the solid to absorb the liquid.

The proportion in which it is desirable to use the sulphur is from about one to threeper cent. thereof relatively to the mass of the above-named combined solid and liquid in gredients; butthese proportions maybe varied witliout departing from the essential feature of the invention. .The sulphur is united with the wet or moist mass of the combined chlorate of potash and liquid ingredient, and this may be accomplished by mixing the sulphur with the said mass by hand in a suitable vessel. The danger of spontaneous explosion, attendant upon mixing sulphur with chlorate oi potash in a dry state, is thus avoided.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The explosive compound herein described, composed of chlorate of potash and a mixture and dead-oil, substantially in the proportions stated, with the wet or moist mass of which said combined ingredients is united sulphur, substantially in the proportions and as and for the purpose set forth.

SILAS R. DIVINE.

Witnesses:

A. S. FITCH, A. G. N. VERMILYA. 

